How to make the most of your school’s attendance data

How can attendance data be used to improve attendance in the future?

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on gov.uk

Pupil numbers, attendance and exclusions

Pupil numbers

Pupil numbers account for the majority of your income, so understanding any growth or decline in numbers is vital in safeguarding the financial health of your organisation. You should consider:

• latest trends, current numbers, and in-year churn in all year groups;
• first, second and third choices and transition from primary to secondary schools;
• pupil projections/future financial planning, including those with additional needs that will require additional funding;
• differences between pupil projections and actual pupil numbers;
• the number of pupils who fall into various categories, including those who:
• are on free school meals;
• have EHCPs
• have SEND but no EHCP;
• attract pupil premium (or service or early years pupil premium);
• are from gypsy/ Roma/ traveller families;
• if a local school increases or decreases their PAN, or accepts children over their PAN.

Pupil attendance levels (including persistent absence)

In line with Working together to improve school attendance, all governing boards should regularly review and discuss attendance data to challenge school leaders and help them focus improvement efforts on the individual pupils, and cohorts, who need it most. For schools struggling with attendance, boards are also expected to work with school leaders to develop a comprehensive plan to improve attendance; this should be evaluated and reviewed regularly at meetings.

Boards of multi academy trusts (MATS) or federations may also wish to hold termly attendance review meetings with each individual school and/or ask them to report on their attendance at defined intervals. Governing boards should consider:

• current and historic trends in attendance;
• pupil cohorts which,  historically, have had poor attendance – for example:
• pupils who have a social worker;
• are from a background or ethnicity where attendance has historically been low;
• have a long-term medical condition;
• special educational needs;
• a disability;
• are eligible for free school meals;
• benchmarking with comparator schools.

Schools are strongly encouraged to share their daily attendance data through an automated collection from their management information system which provides staff with easy-to-use attendance reports. To meet the expectations outlined above, boards are encouraged to prompt their school(s) to sign up to such a programme, and share attendance data from the reports with them.

Pupil moves (including exclusion levels)

Boards should carefully consider the level of pupil moves, and the characteristics of pupils who are moving on any permanent exclusions, to ensure the sanction is only used when necessary, and as a last resort. Governing boards should consider:

• effectiveness and consistency in implementing the school’s behaviour policy;
• the school register and absence codes;
• instances where pupils receive repeat suspensions;
• interventions in place to support pupils at risk of suspension or permanent exclusion;
• variations in the rolling average of permanent exclusions in order to understand why this is happening, and ensure they are only used when necessary;
• characteristics of children who are suspended, permanently excluded, removed from roll, or educated off site, and why this is taking place;
• the timing of moves and permanent exclusions, and whether there are any patterns including any indications which may highlight where policies or support are not working – for example, if high numbers of children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) are moving, your school may wish to consider reviewing its SEN support;
• whether the placements of pupils directed off site into alternative provision (AP) are reviewed at sufficient intervals to provide assurance that this education is achieving its objectives, and that the pupils are benefiting from it;
• the cost implications of directing children to be educated off site in AP.

Academy trusts:

MATs may choose to work with their academies to consider this information, and whether there are patterns across academies within a MAT, recognising that numbers in any one academy are often too low to allow for meaningful statistical analysis.